Alibaba’s research academy identifies AI applications in science, new photonic chips as top tech trends for 2022

• Of the top 10 fields named by Alibaba, four are closely related to AI, in which China is already a ‘full-spectrum peer competitor’ to the US, according to recent study
• Photonic chips, which use photons instead of electrons to transmit data, are likely to be in widespread use by large data centres within three years, DAMO said